Mandatory Physical Education Overweight Or Obese In America?

One in three children are overweight or obese in America, and the rates are increasing (“Active”). Physical education in American schools has gone through many transformations throughout its over a century old life. The purpose of early forms of physical education during the nineteenth century was mostly to train young men before they would be trained for war. Physical education then shifted from militaristic drills to team sports and games. Many states also passed legislation requiring physical education to be a required subject in school curricula. It then evolved to include health education and wellness instruction. However, only one in four kids attend a daily gym class in the twenty-first century. In a world with rising rates of obesity,

Though obesity is growing in the United States America, some question whether it should be the responsibility of the schools to fight the weight gain epidemic (Driscoll). In fact it is not the fault of a school if a child is obese or overweight; it is the foods that surround them while they are at home that is at fault (Driscoll). As poor nutrition plays the biggest part in obesity, it is also questionable why schools push gym classes more than nutrition classes on their students (Driscoll). Some individuals see mandatory physical education classes to be ineffective to students who are not overweight, participate in school sports, or do other exercise related activities (Driscoll). Though the number of overweight kids in America is increasing, they do not make up nearly half of the age group (Driscoll). Due to this, it is questioned why schools should be pressured to cater to a fraction of their student population (Driscoll). To many individuals, "more gym classes represent less time for academics" and could possibly become detrimental to their academic careers (Driscoll). In other words, the more time that a student is exercising in PE class is less time that they are studying math, English, science, a language, or other subjects that will better them for college (Driscoll). Some believe that these skills will improve students’ creative thinking during a day of academic classes in a way that physical exercise cannot (Driscoll). An increase in the amount of mandatory physical education classes can take away from the time spent on from academics